President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of senior figures from Poland’s military, financial and political establishment are assumed to have died when their plane crashed this morning in western Russia.

They were en route to a service to commemorate one of the greatest tragedies in Polish history, the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet secret police at Katyn.

Reports on the figures about the number of people on board initially varied, but Polish media now say that the Tupolev-154 plane, an aircraft that can typically seat 128 people, was carrying 88 passengers and eight crew members.

No survivors have been found in the hours since the plane came down, shortly before 9am Central European Time

The Polish authorities have already said that presidential elections are likely to be held within weeks.

The Russian-made Polish government plane was on a direct flight from Warsaw and, according to Polish news agencies, had made three attempts to land before crashing during its fourth approach.

One of the wings of the plane is believed to have clipped trees as it was preparing to land at Smolensk airport. Conditions were foggy at the time that the plane came down. There are reports from Poland that Smolensk airport advised against landing.

Kaczyński was in Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, during which approximately 22,000 Polish officers were shot.

Fact File

Short list of passengers

Courtesy of Gazeta Wyborcza.

Official delegation:

Lech Kaczyński, president

Maria Kaczyńska, wife of the president

Gen. Franciszek Gągor, chief of staff of the Polish armed forces

Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland’s last president-in-exile

Krystyna Bochenek, deputy leader of the Senate

Jerzy Szmajdziński, deputy leader of the Sejm

Krzysztof Putra, deputy leader of the Sejm

Andrzej Kremer, deputy foreign minister

Stanisław Komorowski, deputy defence minister

Tomasz Merta, deputy culture minister

Władysław Stasiak, head of the presidential office

Aleksander Szczygło, head of the National Security Council

Paweł Wypych, presidential office

Mariusz Handzlik, presidential office

Andrzej Przewoźnik, secretary-general of the Council for National Memory

Maciej Płażyński, member of parliament and co-founder of the governing party, Civic Platform

Mariusz Kazan, director of diplomatic protocol

Other members of parliament:

Leszek Deptuła

Grzegorz Dolniak

Grażyna Gęsicka

Przemysław Gosiewski

Sebastian Karpiniuk

Izabela Jaruga

Zbigniew Wassermann

Aleksandra Natalii

Arkadiusz Rybicki

Jolanta Szymanek

Wiesław Woda

Edward Wojtas

Janina Fetlińska

Stanisław Zając

Other military figures:

Gen. Bronisław Kwiatkowski, commander of operational forces

Gen. Andrzej Błasik, commander of the air force

Gen. Tadeusz Buk, commander of land forces

Gen. Włodzimierz Potasiński, commander of special forces

Vice-Admiral Andrzej Karweta, commander of sea forces

General Brigadier Kazimierz Gilarski, commander of the Warsaw garrison

Other national figures:

Sławomir Skrzypek, president of the National Bank of Poland

Janusz Kochanowski, human-rights ombudsman

Janusz Kurtyka, president of the Institute of National Remembrance

Update:

This list originally included Jerzy Bahr, Poland's ambassador to Russia. Polish reports now say he was not on the flight.

The massacre at Katyn, which lies close to Smolensk, is one of the seminal moments in modern Polish history and a key point of difficulty in relations with Russia. Although the Soviet Union acknowledged responsibility for the massacre in 1990, Russia has been reluctant to release archive documents or to make an unqualified apology, as the Soviet Union’s successor state, for the killings.

The crash comes just days after a breakthrough in relations with Russia, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first senior Russian official to attend a commemoration of the massacre at the site, joining Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the forests near Smolensk on 7 April.

The importance of the occasion to Polish society is reflected in the rollcall of those who were on the plane with Kaczyński.

Travelling with Kaczyński were: his wife Maria; General Franciszek Gągor, chief of the staff of the armed services; Sławomir Skrzypek, president of the National Bank of Poland; Władysław Stasiak, head of the presidential office; Andrzej Kremer, deputy foreign minister; Stanisław Komorowski, deputy defence minister; Tomasz Merta, deputy culture minister; Jerzy Szmajdziński, deputy speaker of the Polish Sejm, former defence minister, and candidate for presidential elections this year; Krystyna Bochenek, deputy leader of the Senate; Przemyslaw Gosiewski, former deputy prime minister; Aleksander Szczygło, head of the National Security Council; 14 other members of the upper and lower houses of parliament; and Janusz Kochanowski, the national human-rights ombudsman.

Military figures who were on board included the heads of the army, navy, air force, and special forces.

Others on board the plane included at least 20 relatives of those killed at Katyn, Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland’s last president-in-exile and many leading historians.

The acting president of Poland is now Bronisław Komorowski, the speaker of the Sejm.

Komorowski was in late March selected by the governing party as its candidate to compete with Kaczyński in presidential elections due late in the year.

The Polish authorities have said that the presidential elections will be brought forward.

Former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski has told Polish media that, under the Polish constitution, presidential elections must now be held with 74 days, an interpretation shared by constitutional experts.

Russia has announced the establishment of an official investigation led by Prime Minister Putin.

Sebastian

The signs appear more and more worrying that the Russians were involved. From the Nazi-Russian pact and Katyn to the recent Russian and Belarusian war games near the Polish border, Russia has always considered Poland its own territory, lost in a time of weakness much as China threatens all over democratic Taiwan. The difference is that Russia shows no compunction about murdering its citizens abroad and backing its threats with violence (vide Georgia) and economic measures (closing oil pipelines). A Russian plane recently ‘repaired’ in a Russian factory? If it is simply a coincidence, through its actions Russia immediately comes under suspicion.
My condolences to our Polish allies who have always supported us since breaking free from Russian control.http://www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com

The signs appear more and more worrying that the Russians were involved. From the Nazi-Russian pact and Katyn to the recent Russian and Belarusian war games near the Polish border, Russia has always considered Poland its own territory, lost in a time of weakness much as China threatens all over democratic Taiwan. The difference is that Russia shows no compunction about murdering its citizens abroad and backing its threats with violence (vide Georgia) and economic measures (closing oil pipelines). A Russian plane recently ‘repaired’ in a Russian factory? If it is simply a coincidence, through its actions Russia immediately comes under suspicion.
My condolences to our Polish allies who have always supported us since breaking free from Russian control.http://www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com

Sebastian

The signs appear more and more worrying that the Russians were involved. From the Nazi-Russian pact and Katyn to the recent Russian and Belarusian war games near the Polish border, Russia has always considered Poland its own territory, lost in a time of weakness much as China threatens all over democratic Taiwan. The difference is that Russia shows no compunction about murdering its citizens abroad and backing its threats with violence (vide Georgia) and economic measures (closing oil pipelines). A Russian plane recently ‘repaired’ in a Russian factory? If it is simply a coincidence, through its actions Russia immediately comes under suspicion.
My condolences to our Polish allies who have always supported us since breaking free from Russian control.http://www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com

The signs appear more and more worrying that the Russians were involved. From the Nazi-Russian pact and Katyn to the recent Russian and Belarusian war games near the Polish border, Russia has always considered Poland its own territory, lost in a time of weakness much as China threatens all over democratic Taiwan. The difference is that Russia shows no compunction about murdering its citizens abroad and backing its threats with violence (vide Georgia) and economic measures (closing oil pipelines). A Russian plane recently ‘repaired’ in a Russian factory? If it is simply a coincidence, through its actions Russia immediately comes under suspicion.
My condolences to our Polish allies who have always supported us since breaking free from Russian control.http://www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com

Posted on 4/10/10 | 5:29 AM CET

Adam

We pray for Our President and all of people have died in a plane crash in Smolensk. +++

Posted on 4/10/10 | 7:49 AM CET

Adam

We pray for Our President and all of people have died in a plane crash in Smolensk. +++

aLEKSANDRA

Waldek Dabrowski

Yesterday a caricature “The Eagle has landed” was publicated in Gazet van Antwerpen. I am deeply concerned about this joke. I wonder how cold hearted one must be to laugh over 96 people losing lives in a massacre flight? What can we do else to entertain you?

Posted on 4/13/10 | 3:28 PM CET

Waldek Dabrowski

Yesterday a caricature “The Eagle has landed” was publicated in Gazet van Antwerpen. I am deeply concerned about this joke. I wonder how cold hearted one must be to laugh over 96 people losing lives in a massacre flight? What can we do else to entertain you?

Posted on 4/13/10 | 3:28 PM CET

Waldek Dabrowski

Yesterday a caricature “The Eagle has landed” was publicated in Gazet van Antwerpen. I am deeply concerned about this joke. I wonder how cold hearted one must be to laugh over 96 people losing lives in a massacre flight? What can we do else to entertain you?

Posted on 4/13/10 | 3:28 PM CET

Waldek Dabrowski

Yesterday a caricature “The Eagle has landed” was publicated in Gazet van Antwerpen. I am deeply concerned about this joke. I wonder how cold hearted one must be to laugh over 96 people losing lives in a massacre flight? What can we do else to entertain you?